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Life at the Speed of Light
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- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
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Publisher's summary
In 2010, scientists led by J. Craig Venter became the first to successfully create "synthetic life" - putting humankind at the threshold of the most important and exciting phase of biological research, one that will enable us to actually write the genetic code for designing new species to help us adapt and evolve for long-term survival. The science of synthetic genomics will have a profound impact on human existence, including chemical and energy generation, health, clean water and food production, environmental control, and possibly even our evolution.
In Life at the Speed of Light, Venter presents a fascinating and authoritative study of this emerging field from the inside-detailing its origins, current challenges and controversies, and projected effects on our lives. This scientific frontier provides an opportunity to ponder anew the age-old question "What is life?" and examine what we really mean by "playing God." Life at the Speed of Light is a landmark work, written by a visionary at the dawn of a new era of biological engineering.
What listeners say about Life at the Speed of Light
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- Chris
- 12-15-13
Very technical book, not for the average listener
This is a very interesting book from the standpoint that it documents a very historical event with the creation of synthetic life. This book provides a detailed history leading up to and then the aftermath of Dr. Venter and associates creation of the synthetic biology. The book is well written, but the content is very scientific and perhaps is more appropriate for scientist and those who have a strong scientific interest or understanding of Dr. Venters work. The performance of the narrator is very good, and even the content of the books is good for the right audience. My opinion is that this book is not necessarily for the average listener. The content is complex and was above my understanding. Over this book is, and will continue to be a very important historical record for the actual scientific creation of the first synthetic life.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Ronbow
- 11-19-14
It's a history book of the study of genetics
What disappointed you about Life at the Speed of Light?
You have to been a serious lab geek to want to listen to CV rattle off hours of names and dates and studies and names and dates and studies. It's like reading the results of a PubMed search out loud.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anon E Mouse
- 05-17-15
Just not there
I have a Ph.D. in engineering and thought that I would find this story interesting. But, it failed to capture my interest and I eventually gave up and moved on to other titles without ever finishing.
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- Patrick🍀
- 11-24-13
A vision fulfilled.
The author, the great scientific genius, J Craig Venter, has stepped through a portal and beckons us to follow him through to the other side. He has fulfilled his vision, but presents the human species, particularly the scientific community with a dilemma, if we follow him, we endorse and subscribe to the notion that the structure of a living cell responds to the same laws of physics and chemistry that govern the rest of the universe. Specifically, the genome of a cell can be programmed, resulting in not just a modified cell, but a new species, a unique living creature.
Mankind is a toolmaking species. We have only had the tool of the modern computer in J Craig Venter's lifetime, and he has made the most of it. His work has demonstrated that the only limiting factor in programming any particular genome is the current power of the computer. And no one doubts that we are only on the first page of the development of this tool. It stands to reason that at some point, we will have the computational power to reprogram a more complex genome than that of a single celled organism.
A scientist in an earlier age concluded that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe of that time period. And as we all know, he was attacked because it disturbed mankind's particular notion of it's special place in that universe. But that scientist, and all of the other scientists that preceded him and have followed him have only described what "is"', they have not created anything. For example (using a current example), a great scientist might describe that the universe is not only expanding, but also that this expansion is accelerating. It is a great discovery, worthy of the Nobel Prize, but it is only a description of what is happening, using modern tools of observation. The observation and the description of the discovery has created nothing new or unique.
But J Craig Venter fulfilled his vision and created something unique in the universe. I am afraid that this will not be appreciated in his lifetime.
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- A. Kay
- 11-24-21
Great material, boring narration
Overall this is a great book with fascinating information about synthetic biotech, but I felt like the narration was boring and might as well have been a computer narrating it.
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- Nick
- 03-09-21
Inspiring
An opportunity to step into a brilliant, learned mind. The narrator is also A+, possessing the perfect voice for the audiobook medium.
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- Charitha Seneviratne
- 02-05-20
Breathtaking!
A terrific story of Molecules and Biology told by one of its greatest deciples! A must read for anyone who is curious about modern biology and its promise.
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- Rahman1708
- 06-20-18
Too much personal detail
He keeps repeating how he should win the nobel prize. But he hasn’t as yet.
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- Brian W. Veit
- 07-13-17
One of my best reads for the year
This is a truly fascinating account of a cutting edge field. Genetics is like fire, or language, or radio waves, a literally life changing watershed moment in the human experiment. This book captures the history and the future trajectory-- transmitting DNA codes via radio waves to replicate life "at the speed of light"
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- Dawn M.
- 11-14-16
Couldn't stop listening!
While I don't claim to have an excellent grasp on all of the subjects covered, I found this book to be very educational and interesting. There were many things covered that I am currently learning in my microbiology class, and I found Craig Venter's passion for his work to be enthralling. I listened every time I got a break, and I know I'll be listening to this book over and over again!
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- Mark
- 09-14-19
Facinati ng book .
loved it. The Author credits the reader with some intelligence and doesn't try to jazz things up. The Narrator has a magnificent voice and his style of narration is beautifully natural and transparent.
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What is life? Humans have been asking this question for thousands of years. But as technology has advanced and our understanding of biology has deepened, the answer has evolved. For decades, scientists have been exploring the limits of nature by modifying and manipulating DNA, cells, and whole organisms to create new ones that could never have previously existed on their own.
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The Goldilocks book on what is life
- By Gary on 07-11-13
By: Adam Rutherford
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A Crack in Creation
- Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution
- By: Jennifer A. Doudna, Samuel H. Sternberg
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Not since the atomic bomb has a technology so alarmed its inventors that they warned the world about its use. Not, that is, until the spring of 2015, when biologist Jennifer Doudna called for a worldwide moratorium on the use of the new gene-editing tool CRISPR - a revolutionary new technology that she helped create - to make heritable changes in human embryos.
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In to the abyss we ascend, a scary future
- By Philomath on 06-17-17
By: Jennifer A. Doudna, and others
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The Deeper Genome
- Why There Is More to the Human Genome than Meets the Eye
- By: John Parrington
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
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Over a decade ago, as the Human Genome Project completed its mapping of the entire human genome, hopes ran high that we would rapidly be able to use our knowledge of human genes to tackle many inherited diseases, and understand what makes us unique among animals. But things didn't turn out that way.
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Great Scientific Writing/ Wrong Narrator
- By Richard on 11-24-15
By: John Parrington
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Arrival of the Fittest
- Solving Evolution's Greatest Puzzle
- By: Andreas Wagner
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In Arrival of the Fittest, renowned evolutionary biologist Andreas Wagner draws on over 15 years of research to present the missing piece in Darwin's theory. Using experimental and computational technologies that were heretofore unimagined, he has found that adaptations are not just driven by chance, but by a set of laws that allow nature to discover new molecules and mechanisms in a fraction of the time that random variation would take.
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Robustness makes for an interesting life and book
- By Gary on 11-29-14
By: Andreas Wagner
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Know This
- Today's Most Interesting and Important Scientific Ideas, Discoveries, and Developments
- By: John Brockman
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman, Dan John Miller
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Scientific developments radically alter our understanding of the world. Whether it's technology, climate change, health research, or the latest revelations of neuroscience, physics, or psychology, science has, as Edge editor John Brockman says, "become a big story, if not the big story". In that spirit this new addition to Edge.org's fascinating series asks a powerful and provocative question: What do you consider the most interesting and important recent scientific news?
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Pete and Repeat and Re-repeat
- By Daniel L on 02-25-18
By: John Brockman
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13 Things That Don't Make Sense
- The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time
- By: Michael Brooks
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Science starts to get interesting when things don't make sense. Science's best-kept secret is that there are experimental results and reliable data that the most brilliant scientists can neither explain nor dismiss. If history is any precedent, we should look to today's inexplicable results to forecast the future of science. Michael Brooks heads to the scientific frontier to meet 13 modern-day anomalies and discover tomorrow's breakthroughs.
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10 interesting chapters-read epiloge first
- By Stephen on 06-10-09
By: Michael Brooks
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The Vital Question
- Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life
- By: Nick Lane
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The Earth teems with life: in its oceans, forests, skies, and cities. Yet there's a black hole at the heart of biology. We do not know why complex life is the way it is, or, for that matter, how life first began. In The Vital Question, award-winning author and biochemist Nick Lane radically reframes evolutionary history, putting forward a solution to conundrums that have puzzled generations of scientists.
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Ouch!
- By Mark on 06-24-16
By: Nick Lane
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The Gene
- An Intimate History
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The extraordinary Siddhartha Mukherjee has written a biography of the gene as deft, brilliant, and illuminating as his extraordinarily successful biography of cancer. Weaving science, social history, and personal narrative to tell us the story of one of the most important conceptual breakthroughs of modern times, Mukherjee animates the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices.
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It's a Wonderful Book
- By JKC on 06-02-16
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The Compatibility Gene
- How Our Bodies Fight Disease, Attract Others, and Define Our Selves
- By: Daniel M. Davis
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Most of the 25,000 genes we possess are the same for all of us. Compatibility genes are those that vary most from person to person and give each of us a unique molecular signature. These genes determine both the extent to which we are susceptible to a vast range of illnesses and the different ways each of us fights disease.
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If interested in medicine, got to read
- By Howard Sterling on 06-29-16
By: Daniel M. Davis
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Neanderthal Man
- In Search of Lost Genomes
- By: Svante Pääbo
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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A preeminent geneticist hunts the Neanderthal genome to answer the biggest question of them all: what does it mean to be human? What can we learn from the genes of our closest evolutionary relatives? Neanderthal Man tells the story of geneticist Svante Pbo’s mission to answer that question, beginning with the study of DNA in Egyptian mummies in the early 1980s and culminating in his sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2009.
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Excellent science tale
- By Neuron on 01-19-15
By: Svante Pääbo
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Life’s Ratchet
- How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos
- By: Peter M. Hoffman
- Narrated by: Paul Hodgson
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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